Pa. charter schools have no accountability

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Pennsylvania General Assembly has failed again in its attempt to provide financial and academic accountability to charter schools. The 11th hour attempt to pass charter school reform failed on June 30 and the General Assembly struck out again on October 17 as both chambers adjourned without passing legislation. The June 30 failure was due to a controversial portion that would have excluded charter school management and vendors from the Right-To-Know Law, which would have allowed charter schools to conceal their expenditures from the public that funds them.

Fixing the flawed funding formula for charters was a top priority for the reform process. The state auditor general has emphasized that charter schools are costing taxpayers an additional million dollars a day. Pennsylvania spends an average of $13,411 per student to attend a brick-and-mortar charter school, about $3,400 above the national average of $10,000.

Cyber charters, with no school buildings and fewer teachers, educate students at a substantially less cost than brick-and-mortar charter schools. Cyber charters in Pennsylvania cost an average of $10,145 per student, about $3,600 above the national average of $6,500. However, the funding formula is the same for both brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools. Thus the cyber schools have a much larger net income, a large amount of which goes to advertising as students come and go.

Charter schools further receive a “double dip” for pension reimbursement, at an additional cost to taxpayers of an estimated $49 million in 2012-13. The legislation passed by the Senate this fall made Right-To-Know Laws applicable to charter school managers and vendors. The legislation also required an independent annual audit for charter schools as well as rejecting the concept of taking the power to authorize charter schools from local school districts.

Academic accountability continues to be a priority since only one cyber charter school made AYP in 2012. Ronald Tomalis, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, tried to boost academic achievement in charter schools by changing the manner in which 2012 state assessment scores were reported. The U.S. Department of Education acknowledged that PDE did not have the authority to attempt to change these standards without receiving prior federal approval.

According to a PSBA report, 44 of the 77 charter schools that PDE classified as having made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) for 2011-12 fell short of the targets for academic achievement that other public schools had to meet. The Stanford University/CREDO study looked at charter performance in 15 states and the District of Columbia covering more than 70 percent of the nation’s charter school students. It found that only 17 percent of charters had academic gains better than traditional public schools; 37 percent were worse and 46 percent showed no significant difference.

The House of Representatives showed wisdom by not passing the rushed legislation at the last minute. Mike Turzai, House Majority Leader, added ‘Funding for cyber charters was a particular concern.” Paul Clymer, chairman of the House Education Committee, stated “The bill was more favorable to the charters and cyber charters than to (traditional) public schools.” Let’s hope that the third time will be the right time for charter school reform!